It’s time to get over the panic and fear and get back to work. The President left the hospital the other day. He had a simple message for the American people. He said do not live in fear or let the fear of this virus “dominate” your life.
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This is a sentiment that has been an American hallmark since the founding; Benjamin Franklin wrote, ‘They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.’
Trump’s message was met with remarkable yet unsurprising resistance.
The accusation against Trump was that his comments are cavalier and reckless. Later in the video message, he specifically cautioned us: “Get out there. Be careful. We have the best medicines in the world, and they’re all happened very shortly, and they’re all getting approved. And the vaccines are coming momentarily.” But let’s not crowd the story with facts.
Life goes on, get a grip and understand the risk
The survival rates from the CDC completely back this statement up. You’ve seen the stats. Broken down by age. The survival rate is a startling: 99.997% survival rate for 0-19, 99.98% for 20-49, 99.5% for 50-69, 94.6% for 70 and over.
In the deepest moment of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt inspired the nation by telling us, “the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.” Not so far from a Trumpian sentiment.
There is literally nothing irresponsible in the President’s communications. A leader should communicate to all of us that we should not be paralyzed by fear over this virus. More caution made sense early on when less was defined about the virus. It made sense in the early days when all we knew was that there is a mess in China and Italy. Then we have the governor-Cuomo made mess in New York. But now we know.
And knowledge is power. We can’t live if we are always afraid.